Residency Steam Room during CoFestival Ljubljana

In the frame of the Creative Crossroad activity, Steam Room was selected by brain store project to receive a 2 years structural support by the LLB network.

This support includes structural and co-production support by brain store project, a residency at STUK Leuven, a residency at Workshop Foundation and a residency during CoFestival Ljubljana, hosted by NDA Slovenia.
The final premiere of the latest work "Drag On" is in March 2020 in Sofia.

DRAG ON is a choreographic project initiated and developed by Aleksandar Georgiev (MK/BG), Zhana Pencheva (BG) and Darío Barreto Damas (SP)

DRAG ON is conceptually connected to the already realized projects NEON, (Aleksandar Georgiev, Zhana Pencheva and Irena Tzvetanova), Celebrate it!, (Zhana Pencheva and Aleksandar Georgiev) and Purple Blood, (Zhana Pencheva, Nefeli Ikonomou, Aleksandar Georgiev and Darío Barreto Damas); three of them dealing, in general terms, with queerness as an approach and ideology defined by practice and the relational protest-celebration body.

DRAG ON is a choreographic work focused on dragging practices that explores the disidentification of bodies and the boundaries around them.

Residency during CoFestival 2019 in Ljubljana

It was a pleasure to host Garage collective as our Creative Crossroad exchange. Both of the parties were looking forward for this experience and in collaboration we plan step by step the whole residency. As NDA SI is a small organization with unstable finances, the finances were ensured and fixed rather late in the year. For this reason, we encouraged the Garage collective to apply for a residency apartment. Next to that, NDA SI framed their staying and presentation in November when most of our yearly activities are planned in frame of CoFestival, which has 4-year programme money from the Ministry (in collaboration with Kino Šiška) and so, at least basic finances are guaranteed. As this is not sufficient for longer staying, NDA SI applied for additional grant at the Ministry to enabled valuable conditions for the Collective that granted them with more sufficient financial support. The residency with following the work of the collective was a great pleasure, seeing the members growth and development, spending some additional time with them and engaged them in the local artistic circles. 

Garage review on their residency: “During the artistic residency period for dragON aka PONY we had access to studio work on daily basis, very valuable feedback sessions with members from the organisation and full access to the cultural scene of Ljubljana, (with free entrances to shows and events, exclusively arranged for us). We call it full access because it seems that NDA Slovenia has great contacts and overview of the scene in Ljubljana, so we had the possibility to follow someone’s work or attend some cultural activities every single night.

NDA Slovenia organised our participation at ŽIVA festival where we presented our work dragON aka PONY in front of wider audience which was great possibility for us to get feedback and meet with audiences from the wider context. Such procedures of exposing the work in its processes make a huge impact on its contextual awareness and its articulation, both conceptually and practically, for further realisation.

As hosts NDA Slovenia were extremely efficient, before, during and after the residency:

•   Before the beginning of our residency, they came with amazing proposals of expanding the financial and facility-based possibilities for the residency period.

•   As the studio provided by JSKD was too small for our work, NDA Slovenia reacted instantly for finding space that fit our needs. Even though this arrangement can be very difficult in countries that have very little spaces for dance, NDA Slovenia solved the issue flawlessly. The efficiency of solving situations as such was on very high level which created for us amazing circumstances to focus on the work and not the practicalities of it.

•   NDA Slovenia has been following our work during the residency and organized two feedback session, while Dejan Srhoj spend additional two days as outside eye to guide and suggest additional material implementations. After the residency, the members stayed in touch with us. Still curious, still generous, still interested, they show impeccable work ethics, building trust and friendship within a professional context.”

Garage collective (Alexandar, Dario, Zhana)

The process of the artistic work during the residency:

“Our focus during the residency was to strengthen the physical skeleton of the piece, already built in September 2019. We worked mainly in two layers:

1.  How physically, (dance-wise), can we relate to the interests and questions we want to trigger with this work?

2.  What are the reformative subtleties that need to be stressed in order to get closer to the interests and questions we want to trigger with this work?

To do so, it was an urgent need to present the work in front of smaller and larger audience that created the possibility to reflect over its means when it is exposed. The context of ŽIVA festival was extremely useful.

The work left to-be-done once we finished the residency was to conclude the final touches of music, costumes and stage.

We are extremely thankful to NDA Slovenia for making this process one of the greatest working periods in our production history.”

Further, Steam Room presented "Moonlight" at Kino Siska on 25 November during the residency.